October 02, 2005

A War Like No Other : The Peloponesian War

One of the first things I see a parallel between that ancient war and the current one is how if two forces are locked in a death and life struggle, with neither side winning overwhelmingly or giving indications that they are willing to give up, then both sides are going to create alternative ways of warfare that is most assuredly more horrendous than the classic forms.

Sparta tried to burn down Athens' farmlands and their agricultural abilities, but Athen's leader, Pericles, had decided that all 300,000 would say in Athens and eat the food imported from their provinces. Athens tried to invade and surround Sparta, but ended up wasting lives and making more enemies.

In the end, Sparta and Athens were trying to force people to be on their side, so as to get an advantage to defeat the other. Burned villages, every Sparta caught by Athens slaughtered, every Athens caught by Sparta mutilated.

This is analogous to this war. Since the terroists can't fight conventionally, so they come up with IEDs, kidnappings, beheadings, and VBIEDs. But we can't fight the terroist's kind of war either, so we come up with predator aircraft, automated robots to check IEDs, uparmored humvees, and so on.

Sparta was a land power and Athens was a navy power, one side would be defeated when the other creates a force and defeats the other's strength. In the end, Sparta acquired a fleet from Persia and used that to defeat Athens. Athens had a hoplite army but they didn't want to crash it against the Spartan elite hoplites.

America has the mightiest convention forces in the history of the earth, Air force, Naval fleet, Army, and Marines. Yet America knows nothing about how to fight with propaganda, and is not doing anything to learn how to. The enemy, however, are experts in informational and psychological warfare. They use intimidation as weapons and propaganda as their bread and butter. The enemy doesn't know how to shoot right, they don't know how to coordinate using light infantry tactics, and they can't even ambush one of our Medical Corp convoys and get away with their lives. We don't know how to snatch people off the streets and break them psychologically to get information without the media crufixing us forget the terroists. We don't want to assassinate any leader, Al Sadr or political or Iran or Syrian. We have nukes but we don't use it to further a propaganda campaign.

In a war, you will eventually become more like your enemy, if only to beat that enemy. Until such a time, the war won't be over cause the other side won't admit defeat unless you defeat them on their terms and territory. To us, we won't admit defeat unless you defeat us politically and on the battlefield. To the terroists, they won't admit defeat unless we prove we are more ruthless, and more insane than they are.

It's a tactic of desperation, since the Athenians and Spartans had been fighting for years, and nobody was winning.

In such a fight, the one that makes the first mistake, or the one that is able to learn the enemy's way of fighting, will change the balance of the war. In the end, it was Athens that made the mistake of invading Sicily, allowing the Spartans to acquire a fleet and defeat Athens.

What mistake will America make in the War on Terror? Remember, we can't be defeated militarily, but we can be on the homefront via public opinion, ala Vietnam. The terroists can't be defeated conventionally, cause they got state sponsors, and they live civilian lives.

The terroists attack our civilians to make us lose our will, because they know they cannot defeat our military and so will not try. Athens tried to hold out using their navy, becaus they knew their hoplite army was no match for Sparta's. We attack the terroists, but not the states sponsoring them or the families benefiting from terroist actions and propaganda, because we aren't familiar with such tactics of guerrila warfare.

Until the terroists know how to wage war effectively conventionally, or America learns how to use our Special Forces to sow terror and destruction among supporters of terrorism, this war is going to go on for awhile.

We, like Athens, could use our proxies to fight some of the battles for us. We can use Iraq and Afghanistan to inculcate the brutality and ruthlessness that we, as a more civilized and more decadent society, are unable to manifest unless seriously damaged.

We want to preempt the terroists, since the only way we could become heartless and brutal and ruthless was to wait for a terroist to attack us with WMDs.

Another thing I see is very simple. And that is how both sides resorted to a kind of mass insanity, destroying people just for the sake of destroying people. They were trying to use terror to get more allies, but terror only works if you do it selectively. That is the problem of the terroists, and I am pleased to say that it is not the problem of the U.S.

There is a certain decadence as people become more rich and plentiful. That decadence is a lack of will, a lack of motivation, and a lack of ruthlessness. People who are rich, do not want to sully their hands with violence and war, instead they either get some cannon fodder poor dudes to fight or they just don't fight at all, thus motivating other people to attack us for their pleasure, killing a lot of us never a lot of the rich.

The Hollywood Left is the epitome of Greek Hellenization. They are rich, they are decadent, they have no interests other than their self-aggrandizement and fame.

A society can be measured by the fighting spirit of their leaders and their soldiers. I am glad that most of the rich people are not in government, we keep them in the private sector where the crazies belong. Although we have decreased a mite, Thucydies thesis that humans lose their veneer of civilization in a war to the knife, does indeed apply to us and hopefully as well. Because when we realize that we are fighting a Total War, a war of annihilation, then we will finally wake up and committe all our energies to our salvation. The prospect of being hanged tomorrow concentrates the mind wonderfully.

Like Athens, even though they lost, they learned from their mistakes and recreated their civilization and democracy. It is true that they lost Pericles, and much of their great officers and leaders, but they recovered even at that. And so will we. Even if we have to use nuclear weapons to psychologically break the Arabs, our enemies, or to kidnap our enemies and execute them to serve as an example to other enemies.

We will recover... if we are alive to have that chance, that is. Unlike the decadent rich fucks in this world, I do not believe it is our destiny and fate to win. No, unlike the decadent rich fucks in this world, I know that defeat is close and on our heels, just like death and foolish are. The rich people in their tea parties and three some fuck parties, may believe that their lifestyle is too superior to be destroyed, but I know better. My perspective is a historical one, it is also a pragmatic one. No one, is exempt from death, violence, and destruction. Not even the decadent rich elites.

When they get done with our soldiers, and our politicians, and the conservatives. The rich people are next. I'd be laughing when they take them away, if I wasn't already probably dead that is.